PolicyPak for SugarSync

Cloud storage brings many advantages to your users, which is why it is so popular. At PolicyPak we know there are a number of cloud storage application choices used within enterprises today, which is why we strive to support as many as possible, including SugarSync.

Your users depend on the most current copies of their files, which is why the synchronization element of these cloud based applications is so critical, so critical that you certainly don’t want your users configuring these applications.

That’s where PolicyPak comes in. PolicyPak enforces and locks down the optimum setting values that you, the administrator, want your users to have. PolicyPak sets and enforces expectations for your users’ applications, so that they get the same experience, every time they launch it.

Keep your SugarSync configuration settings enforced and streamlined with PolicyPak. Check out this video to see how it’s done:

Our PolicyPak software snaps-in to the Group Policy Editor and gives you the same user interface as SugarSync itself. This application is of no use if it isn’t running at all times so use PolicyPak to make sure that “Start SugarSync when my computer starts up” is always checked.

The easier you make things for your users, the less help desk calls they will generate. You can use PolicyPak to clearly create a separate local drive for this application by ensuring that “Mount SugarSync as a local drive” is always checked and go and select a drive letter to match it. Then to make sure that your users can’t modify this configuration uniformity you can use PolicyPak’s signature feature, ACL Lockdown. ACL Lockdown locks your desired application settings all the way down to the registry itself, preventing registry savvy users from altering your desired settings directly within the registry. Simply right click on your desired settings and select “Perform ACL Lockdown.”

SugarSync is a cloud based application, which means it needs to access the Internet, which means it must be configured correctly for proxy settings. PolicyPak can ensure that SugarSync always has the correct proxy information so that Internet connectivity is always ensured. You can lock down this setting as well as any setting within this application with ACL Lockdown.

With PolicyPak, you’re the one in control.

Besides, once you’re using PolicyPak to manage SugarSync, you’ll also get to manage all your other enterprise desktop applications the same way: Flash, Lync, Java, Firefox, and any custom applications you have. They’re 100% included – absolutely free.

It’s all included when you’re a PolicyPak Professional customer.

Lockdown SugarSync Video Transcript

Hi, this is Jeremy Moskowitz, Group Policy MVP and Founder of PolicyPak Software. In this video, we’re going to learn how to configure SugarSync using PolicyPak.

I’ve already got SugarSync installed on my computer, and I’m just a regular user here. As you can see, I’m logged on as a guy called “eastsalesuser4.” I’ll open up SugarSync, go to Tools- Preferences, and examine the configuration settings a user has access to.

We’ll start in “General” where I have settings for automatically starting up this application as well as file status icons. “SugarSync Drive” has some key settings if you want to make a local mounted drive for SugarSync and then “Connection” has those critical “Proxy Settings” we find in many applications

SugarSync is a registry based application which means a computer savvy user can access the registry and alter your desired settings. I have the registry location saved here where your user could go straight into it and modify the setting for “VirtualDriveIsLocalDrive” and change the value from true to false. As you can see, EastSalesUser4 has the rights to do this. No Admin rights required.

Now let’s see how we can ensure compliance and perform desktop management of settings quickly using PolicyPak. I’ll go ahead and switch over to my Management Station computer.

We’ll go ahead and right click over our “East Sales Users”, “Create a GPO” and we’re going to call it “Lockdown SugarSync.” So this GPO is now associated with the “East Sales Users.” I’ll right click over it. I’ll click “Edit…” I’ll dive down under “User Configuration / PolicyPak/Applications/New/Application.” There it is, “PolicyPak for SugarSync 2.0” along with other applications like “Java,” “Flash” “Firefox,” “Skype” and lots of other important desktop applications that your users utilize every day (and you want to make more secure).

Let’s start with “General” and let’s make sure that SugarSync always starts once the computer is booted by checking “Start SugarSync when my computer starts up.” Notice how the setting became underlined as soon as I modified it. That means that the setting value will be delivered by PolicyPak.

Next I’ll go “SugarSync Drive” and let’s go and check “Mount SugarSync Drive when starting SugarSync” and “Mount SugarSync Drive as a local drive.” Now let’s lock these setting all the way down to the registry itself by using PolicyPak’s unique feature, ACL Lockdown. This will prevent registry savvy users from modifying my delivered settings within the registry file itself. To do so, I’ll right click on these settings and select “Perform ACL Lockdown.”

Finally let’s go to “Connection,” select “Manually enter proxy settings” and then type in an address. We can select ACL Lockdown for these settings as well.

Now I will go back to my client machine, get a command prompt and run “gpupdate.” Now you could envision the user logging on for the very first time, using a Terminal Services or Citrix machine, using a VDI session, changing job roles, or getting a new computer. I just happen to be using gpupdate. Yes, PolicyPak performs the magic. To get the magic delivered, you can use Group Policy, SCCM, LanDesk, KACE or your own systems management software. Even if the user is offline, your settings are always preserved because PolicyPak is always working for you in the background, making the job of you the administrator, easier.

Now let’s open up SugarSync again and check your settings. Once again we’ll start with “General” and you will notice that “Start SugarSync when my computer starts up” is indeed checked and that if we look at “SugarSync Drive” we find that my two checked values have been delivered. Finally we’ll check “Connection” and confirm that Proxy Settings have been set to manual and that the proxy address has been correctly delivered.

Now let’s pretend this user tries to change the settings within the registry itself. I’ll open up the file once again and to attempt to modify “VirtualDriveIsLocalDrive” and as you can see the efforts of this user has been thwarted. PolicyPak with ACL Lockdown has locked down these settings.

And we are done. That is how incredibly easy it is for you to use PolicyPak to manage SugarSync as well as tons of other desktop applications.

If you’re looking for a trial of PolicyPak, just click on the “Webinar / Download” button on the right.

Thanks so much for watching, and get in touch with us if you’re looking to get started. Talk to you soon.